When You Can't Decide
by PrincessKayla148
Summary: Jiley, Loliver
1. Chapter 1

"Miley! Miley!" Jake shouted running into the Stewart house to find Miley.

As soon as she heard her name, Miley perked up and spotted Jake just as he flung himself onto the couch beside her. "Great news Miley, Frankie Muniz got the part back for the movie!"

Miley furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "That's good? But I thought you wanted that part."

"I did, but you're missing out on the good part," Jake explained. "Since I'm not going to be in the movie anymore, I don't have to go to Romania!"

"Seriously, Jake? That's awesome!" Miley exclaimed. She threw her arms around Jake and hugged him tightly, grinning ear to ear. Jake hugged her back, smiling also.

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When Miley walked into homeroom that Monday, the most beautiful boy she'd ever seen was sitting in her seat. She stopped dead in her tracks, causing the chain reaction of Lilly crashing into her, and Oliver crashing into Lilly. She dropped her books as an affect of the collision, and everyone turned to stare.

"Oh," said a snotty voice off to the right of them, a voice known to belong to Amber. "It's just Miley and her little lackeys."

"Get out of the doorway," her friend Ashley said.

"Like, there's barely enough room for just one of you," the pair said at the same time. They turned to each other and did their signature 'burn' action. "Oooh, tsssss."

"I wouldn't be talking if I were you, Ashley," Lilly said, leaning down to help Miley pick up her books. "Considering you're one pound away from being oh, what is it, a size 5?"

In response, Ashley glared and turned away.

Slowly but surely, Miley headed to her desk, Lilly and Oliver sitting in their seats. "Um, hi, I'm sure you didn't know, but this is my spot."

The new boy glanced up and blushed. "Sorry, Mr. Corelli just told me to take a seat anywhere before he left. Something about donuts in the teacher's lounge. Anyway, I'm Austin." He stuck out his hand for Miley to shake.

Accepting his hand, Miley smiled. "I'm Miley."

The new boy, Austin, gathered up his things and stood up, allowing Miley to sit down.

Miley sat in her desk.

"Um, sorry to be a burden, but do you know where another empty desk might be?" Austin asked hesitantly.

Miley scanned the classroom for an empty desk. Unfortunately, there was only one, and it was next to Amber and Ashley. "Sorry, but there's only one seat left, and it's right over there." She pointed towards the aforementioned desk.

"Thanks." With that, Austin headed off towards the desk, only to be hounded by Amber and Ashley moments later.

Lilly, looking up from the book she'd pulled out and acting like she hadn't been listening to their conversation, glanced around the room before saying, "Was he cute or what?"

"I know, his eyes are so dreamy!" Miley squealed.

"But, wait a minute," Lilly said, a confused look on her face. "What about you and Jake?"

Miley's expression suddenly turned very solemn. "You're right Lilly, I can't be crushing on another guy when I'm with Jake, that's like… thought cheating!"

"Well which guy do you like more?" Oliver said, finally butting in. "I mean, if my girlfriend liked another guy more than she liked me, I'd be crushed."

"Jake, obviously. I just met Austin, besides, right now I only like him because of his looks, I haven't even gotten to know him."

"Well you should do that then," Oliver said sighing. "Do I have to tell you everything?"

Miley looked at Oliver pitifully. "Would you?"

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Skate4life: Have you decided?

Superstar: Decided what?

Skate4life: About Jake and Austin. Which one you like better.

Superstar: No, not yet.

Skate4life: Why not???

Superstar: I haven't had much time - besides, Jake's coming over tonight. We're gonna have a movie night.

Skate4life: Okay, have fun. Buh-bye!

Superstar: Bye, Lilly.

Just as Miley signed out of AIM, she heard a a knock on her door. It was Jackson. "Hey, Miles, Jake's here."

Miley swiveled around in her chair and walked casually down the stairs. She found Jake patiently waiting for her on the couch, and went to stand by him

"Hey Jake, ready for our movie night?"

Jake sighed and stood. "Actually, I can't stay. I just found out that I have a movie premiere that I have to go to. I'm sorry."

Miley was confused. "You have to go to a movie premiere on a Monday?"

"Yeah. I know it's really weird, but I guess it's Friday where the movie was made so they wanted to honor it or something."

"Oh. Okay. I'll see you later then, I guess."

"Bye." Jake kissed Miley quickly on the lips, and left.

Jake went out the door, and Miley felt a very odd sensation in a very odd place: Her cell phone vibrating from her back pocket. "I've gotta turn that thing off vibrate!" she exclaimed as she pulled her phone out and answered it.

"Hello?"

"Hey, this is Jake."

Miley's heart raced and she gasped quietly. How did Jake get her cell number? As far as she knew, he didn't even know she had a cell phone.

"Hannah? Hannah, are you okay?"

"Um, yeah, I'm fine. How did you get my phone number?"

"I got it off the cast list. You know, from that episode of Zombie High you guest starred in. From what I've heard, the audience loved your character. You should come back for another episode sometime. I promise you won't have to kiss demon dog again."

"I'll think about it. So... did you need anything?"

"Yeah, I was just wondering if you'd... maybe like to go out on a date with me tonight. You see, I've got this movie premeire to go to, and thought it would be fun to have you there with me. What do you think?"

"Don't you have a girlfriend or something? I could've sworn I heard that you were dating someone in the tabloids today."

"That's just a rumor. Will you please go with me?"


	2. Chapter 2

Come on, Miley, think, what would Hannah say? I've just gotta play it cool, Miley thought. "I don't know, Jake. What time is the premeire at?" Miley asked.

"It's at eight."

"Can I call you back once I've thought about it? I mean, I may have some plans I need to cancel."

"Yeah, sure."

"Great, talk to you later, bye." Miley hung up before Jake said goodbye.

She dialed Lilly's number into her phone, and pressed send. Lilly definitely needed to hear about this.

The phone rang once, twice, three times, and four times before Lilly's voicemail picked up: Hey, this is Lilly's phone, and obviously I'm not here right now. Leave me a message after the beep or I won't even bother calling you back. Because if I'm not important enough for you to leave a message for me, you aren't important enough for me to call you back. BEEEEP.

"Hey, Lilly, it's Miley. Look, I really need to talk to you. Call me back as soon as you can. Bye."

Not even five minutes after I had hung up, Lilly called back. "Miley! What's wrong? You sounded really upset in your message."

Miley sighed, not yet sure how to tell Lilly what was going on. How was she supposed to tell her that Jake was trying to cheat on her... with me? "Lilly... Jake called off our movie night so he could go to a movie premiere."

"That's it? That doesn't seem like much to get worked up about."

"No, that's not it." She took a deep breath, and plunged in headfirst. She carefully told her every detail of what had happened tonight. "So what am I supposed to do, Lil? Do I call back and say 'sorry, I can't go with you because I'm Miley', or do I go with him and act like nothing's worng?"

"Duh, Miley, obviously you should go with him!"

"Um... how is this obvious?"

"Because! If you go with him as Hannah, you can find out if he really planned on cheating on you with Hannah, or if he just wanted her to tag along as a friend!"

"Lilly, that is such a... not a bad idea. You're a genius, Lilly."

"I know, that's why you keep me around."

"True... but I won't go to the premiere unless you do one thing for me."

"Sure, I'll do anything, what is it?"

"Come with. As Lola. I'll tell Jake that I had something planned with you, and that I felt so bad about breaking our date that I invited you to come along. He wouldn't say no to that, would he?"

"Well I guess not. I'll meet you at your house soon and we can get ready together."

"Okay, thank you so much, Lilly!"

"No problem, Miles. Just helping the world one friend at a time."

She held back a laugh. "Bye Lilly."

They hung up and Miley let loose a laugh. Lilly could be such a goober sometimes.

She searched through her call history for Jakes number, and hit talk. He picked up after two rings. "Hey, Hannah, did you decide yet?"

"Yeah, I'll go with you, but we're gonna have a tag-along if that's okay with you. I mean, I normally wouldn't have invited her, but we'd had plans to hang out tonight, and I just felt so bad about breaking them, that I had to invite her."

"Of course it's okay, who is it?"

"My friend Lola. I think you met her a few weeks ago. You know, the girl with the crazy colored hair who was really nervous? That's her."

"Oh, I remember Lola. She seemed really cool."

"She is, I promise."

"Great. So where do you live?"

"Oh, I live around Seaview Middle School, do you know where that is?"

"Yeah, I go to school there."

"Okay, well, why don't you just pick me up there?"

"Sounds good, I'll have my driver pick you up there at like, 7:40"

"Cool, see you then."

"Later, Hannah."

They hung up, and Miley looked at the clock. It read 7:15. That gave her and Lilly only 20-some minutes to get ready, depending on when Lilly showed up.

Just as Miley finished that thought, Lilly burst through the door. "I am so sorry I didn't get here sooner, I don't know what got into me."

"It's okay Lilly. Now let's get to the Hannah closet. Jake's meeting us at school soon."

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"Oh wow, Jake, your limo is cooler than Hannah's! Lilly exclaimed, sliding into the backseat of the limo. Lilly glanced at Miley and smiled apologetically. "No offense, Hannah."

"Now, Lola, I'm sure our limos are the same. Right Hannah?" Jake said looking straight into Miley's eyes.

"Um, sure, Jake," Miley answered uneasily.

They all buckled in and Miley couldn't help but notice that Jake was a bit closer to her than necessary.

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Within minutes, they were at the premiere. One by one, they got out of the limo, each looking slightly more glamorous than the first. At the sight of Hannah Montana getting out of a limo with Jake Ryan, the paparazzi went ballistic. Cameras were flashing everywhere, each paparazzi trying to be the first to get a picture of Hannah and Jake together.

"Jake, Jake, what are you and Miss Montana doing here together?" A nearby reporter questioned.

"Well-" Jake started, only to be cut off by Miley.

"Don't get any idea's, we're just friends."

"Yeah, just friends," Lilly spoke up.

The reporter gave Lilly a dirty look. "And who are you?"

"Lola," Lilly said. "Lola Luftnagle."

"How do you know Hannah?"

"We've been best friends ever since her first day here."

"Uh huh, okay," Miley interrupted. "We really should get going."

"Right," Jake said, protectively putting his arm around Miley. "Let's go.


	3. Chapter 3

The movie was extremely boring. Miley couldn't have told you what it was about if her life depended on it. The only thing she knew about it was that the leading guy was really cute. Like Orlando Bloom or Zac Effron cute. But there was more than one reason as to why Miley couldn't concentrate on the movie. The second reason was because Jake couldn't seem to keep his hands off her.

For about the first half hour, he'd had his hand lingering next to her's on the armrest. Then, he'd tried to pull off the oh-so-smooth 'I'm yawning but not really so I'll put my arm around your shoulders' move. It hadn't worked out so much for him though, because Lilly saw out of the corner of her eye and asked him to get her some more chocolate covered raisins. The things she did for Miley.

When he got back, he handed Lilly her candy and actually went as far as to put his hand on Miley's knee. Miley tried to ignore it, but that proved to be very hard, so she picked up Jake's hand and placed it onto his own leg.

Jake got the picture and didn't touch Miley for the rest of the movie.

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After the movie, Miley and Lilly walked quickly back down the red carpet, leaving Jake to walk by himself.

"I can't believe he'd do that!" Lilly said, obviously outraged. "He's such a pig."

Miley said nothing, but nodded and lowered her eyes to the ground.

When Jake finally reached them, Miley still wasn't speaking. "Are you okay, Hannah?"

Looking up, Miley wiped the tears from her eyes. "I'm fine."

"Okay, let's get to the limo." Jake led them to his limo and held the door open, allowing Lola and Hannah to slide in before him.

Once he got in and shut the door, he turned to Miley. "Are you sure you're okay? You look kind of upset."

"You're such a jerk, Jake!"

Jake was dumbfounded. "What? I'm a jerk because I'm concerned about you? I don't get it."

"No. You're a jerk because of what you did to me."

"Excuse me? I've done nothing but be nice to you!"

Lola snorted and uttered 'Pig' under her breath.

"You've done nothing to me? Can't you think of anything you were supposed to do tonight? Anything that you bailed on at the last minute?"

"No."

"You ditched your girlfriend so you could come to the stupid premiere with me!"

"How... how did you know that?" Jake gasped.

"Because. I know your girlfriend very well."

"You know Miley? How?"

Miley sighed, and turned to give Jake a better look at her face. "Look at me, Jake. Can you think of anyone I remind you of? Anyone I sound like?"

"No... not really. Why?"

"Just forget it," Miley snapped. "If you can't realize who I am, then you aren't worth my time."

"Come on, Hannah, I think you're overreacting just a bit," Jake said boredly.

"Yeah, Hannah," Lilly said in a warning tone. "Just drop it before you do something stupid."

"Fine, I'll drop it. I just wonder what Miley would say if she knew what you were doing all night."

"Why do you keep bringing Miley up?" Jake demanded.

"Nevermind, just forget it."

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The limo was very quiet, and Jake was feeling generous.

"Why don't I take you and Lola for ice cream, to say that I'm sorry," Jake suggested to Miley.

"Would I have to accept your apology?" Miley retorted.

"No... you wouldn't have to."

Miley looked at Lilly. Lilly nodded, intrigued at the thought of ice cream.

"Okay. We can get ice cream I guess."

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Jake had his limo driver take them to Dairy Queen.

The trio went inside and everyone flipped out. I mean, come on, if big movie stars and pop stars like Hannah Montana and Jake Ryan just up and walked into the Dairy Queen near you, wouldn't you just about have a heart attack? Miley and Jake signed autographs, took pictures, and were polite little celebrities until the crowd died down.

"Ugh, being famous can be such a drag sometimes," Miley said.

"You're telling me," Jake agreed.

"Yeah," Lilly said sarcastically. "I'd absolutely hate having people fawn over me and worship the ground that I walk."

After looking at the menu for a while, they all decided on blizzards. Lilly wanted reeses, Jake wanted cookies and cream, and Miley wanted chocolate chip cookie dough. The blizzards were payed for, and they went back outside to the limo, and Jake told his driver to just drive around until Miley and Lilly were ready to go home.

"So, Lola," Jake said once he was finished with his blizzard. "How do you get your hair to stay so bright?"

"Oh, I uh, have a special shampoo made for me. By my hairdresser. I call it... uh, Double L."

"Cool, I'll have to try it sometime. That is, if it's alright with you."

"Of course, anytime."

Jake glanced at the clock. "Oh, wow, it's already 11. I should have you two taken home." Jake signaled to his driver to head for Seaview.

"Wow, time sure flies," Miley said, faking a yawn. "And I'm getting pretty tired."

"Yeah, besides, we have that test in math tomorrow, and I haven't studied," Lilly said.

Miley elbowed Lilly for her mistake, and Jake's eyes widened in surprise. "You have a test in math tomorrow to? Where do you go to school?"

"We don't," Miley said quickly. "We're homeschooled at my house. Our teachers just go by the same schedule that the public school teachers do."

"Oh, well that's cool," Jake said, believing every word.

"That's kind of what I thought," Lilly said. "But the coolness sort of wore off a few years ago."

"I see," Jake said.

They arrived at the school within minutes, and the girls got out.

"Thanks for the blizzards, Jake," Miley said with Lilly nodding enthusiastically in the background.

"It's no problem." Jake smiled reached for Miley's hand. "I had fun tonight. We should do this more often."

Miley stiffened at Jake's sudden abruptness. "Yeah. Sure. Well I'll see you later." She pulled her hand free of Jake's, and her and Lilly headed towards Miley's house.

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As they got in the house, Miley whipped off her wig, leaving her brown curls to fly everywhere. "I can't believe he tried to cheat on me with Hannah! And how could he not recognize me? Our voices sound the same, and we look exactly the same, except for the hair! If he can't realize that I'm Hannah on his own, maybe we're not meant to be together." With that, Drama Queen Miley flopped onto the couch and pouted, grumbling to herself. Every few moments, she'd utter things that sounded like 'What a jerk' and 'I can't believe it'.

"You're right, Miley," Lilly said after giving Miley a few moments to steam. "Jake's totally not the right guy for you. No matter how cute he is. Besides, once you free yourself of Jake, you can have the cute new boy, Austin and not feel guilty or anything!"

"Austin?" Miley asked, doubtfully. "Please, he's way to cute for me. I'd be surprised if Amber and Ashley hadn't already sunk their claws into him."

"You never know Miley." Lilly sighed and sat on the couch next to Miley. "He's only been to school here for a day. Anything could happen soon, and he'd be stupid not to like you."

Miley smiled. "Thanks Lilly."

"No problem. I should get home, mom's gonna flip if I'm not home in the next fifteen minutes." Lilly got up and headed for the door. "I'll call you later, okay?"

"You sure you don't need a ride?"

"I'll be fine, I only live three blocks away. Bye, Miles."

Lilly left, leaving Miley with no one to dramatize to.


	4. Chapter 4

The Ollie Trollie has signed on.

The Ollie Trollie says: Lil told me wut happened

Smiley says: Great. So now u feel sry 4 me 2.

The Ollie Trollie says: No. I feel sry 4 Jake.

Smiley says: Y?

The Ollie Trollie says: He rly doesn't no wut he's misng.

Smiley says: Yr just saying that.

The Ollie Trollie says: No. I mean it. Yr a great person Miles.

Smiley says: Thx.

Skate4Life has joined the conversation.

Skate4Life says: The prty has arrived!

The Ollie Trollie says: Wut prty?

Skate4Life says: ... nvm.

Smiley says: It's jst a figure of speech, Oliver.

The Ollie Trollie says: Oh.

Zombie Man has signed on.

The Ollie Trollie says: Hey, Jake's on.

Zombie Man has joined the conversation.

Zombie Man says: Hey, Miley, Lilly, Oliver.

The Ollie Trollie says: Hey

Skate4Life says: Sup

Smiley says: Hi.

Smiley says: I g2g. ttyl.

Smiley has signed off.

Skate4Life says: Me 2, bye.

Skate4Life has signed off.

Zombie Man says: Wut's up w/ them?

The Ollie Trollie says: idk. Sum grl thing prbly.

Zombie Man says: Ok. I g2g 2. See ya.

Zombie Man has signed off.

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That night, Miley barely got any sleep. She tossed and turned half the night, and when she finally shut her eyes she dreamt of Jake cheating on her with all sorts of girls. By the time her alarm clock went off at 7:30, she'd only gotten 5 hours of sleep. She tried to convince her dad to let her stay home, but he felt her forehead, which was neutral, and said "Sorry, Bud, ya gotta go to school today."

When she stepped outside her door, she saw a certain cheating zombie slayer waiting for her. In the rain. With flowers. Maybe he is sorry about our date, Miley thought. But wait, if he's so sorry, why'd try to feel Hannah up last night?

"I'm sorry I had to ditch you last night," Jake said in response to the confused, yet slightly gleeful look on Miley's face. "So this is to make up for it."

"You didn't have to give me flowers," Miley said, stepping off her front porch and accepting the beautiful red roses. These are so beautiful, Miley squealed on the inside.

"I wanted to. I mean, you just looked so dissapointed when I told you about the premiere, so I wanted to make it up to you. Is it working?"

"Maybe."

The couple walked towards Lilly's house, Miley smiling down at the roses and Jake babbling loudly about some movie star or other. He may even have asked Miley a question once or twice, but she wasn't sure. She just kept nodding and smiling. When they got to Lilly's house, she ran out, pigtails flying behind her and backpack bouncing off shoulders.

She took a look at the flowers, a look at Jake, and finally a long look at the grin Miley was wearing. She hasn't told him, Lilly thought to herself. I'll have to play along too. Lilly put on a smile and looked at Jake again. "You got her roses? That was ultra sweet of you, Jake!" 'Ultra sweet'? Where do I come up with this crap?

As they started the walk to Oliver's, Lilly pulled Miley aside a bit. "What's up, Miley?" she whispered.

Miley looked at Lilly confused. "What do you mean, what's up?"

"Don't play stupid, Miley, I'm talking about you and Lover Boy over here. He flirts with Hannah all night after breaking a date with you, and shows up with flowers at your house, hoping everything's okay. You can't let him walk all over you, Miley."

"Lilly," Miley started in a strong, clear voice, "I am fine. You don't have to worry about me." Lilly's right, Miley realized as she was scolding Lilly. I'm letting Jake get away with this. How could I do that? I need Lilly to help me get back at him.

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The rest of the way to school was completely boring. Nothing interesting happened at Oliver's house when Jake and Oliver showed them some secret handshake, and they were quiet the rest of the walk.

They entered the front doors and went their seperate ways. Except for Miley and Jake that, since their lockers were only a few away from each other.

Miley grabbed the books she needed for the first half of the day, put her backpack in, set the flowers on the bottom, and slammed the door shut.

"Jeez, Miley, something bugging you?" Jake asked.

"No," Miley said calmly. "Look, Jake, we need to talk."

At that moment, all the girls in the hallway perked up to the conversation, hoping that a break up would ensue. After all, We, need, to, and talk were the most dreaded words in the English language.

Miley looked at the girls and shooed them away. "C'mon, get outta here, you have better things to do." As the girls scattered, Miley saw a familiar face heading for homeroom. Austin Nickelsons.

"You're right, Miley," Jake said sadly. "We do need to talk. I thi-" the bell rang, signaling one minute to homeroom.

He was going to break up with me, Miley thought frantically. I can't let him break up with me, I have to break up with him! I need a reason not to talk to him... let's see here... "Let's talk later, Jake, I need to talk to Lilly about Science." Miley quickly walked to homeroom and immediately sat down next to Lilly.

She opened her Science log and whispered, "Pretend you're helping me with Science, please!"

"Okay," Lilly whispered back. "So, what exactly do you think a mineral is?"

"Um... a substance with a crystalline structure that is... solid and... inorganic, I think," Miley said, racking her brain for answers. Hey, they did minerals last week, and she tended to shut her brain off over the weekends, with exceptions for homework.

Jake took the hint and went to talk to Austin, all the way over on the other side of the room.


	5. Chapter 5

DING! DING! DING!

The bell rang, signaling the end of homeroom. Almost as if on a cue, the kids all filed out of their classrooms, creating one big mesh of color in the middle of the hallway.

"Miley!" Jake shouted, searching through the sea of heads around him for that one head of beautiful brown hair.

"I'm not Miley, but I could be," a blonde, curly-haired girl to his right said, hopefully.

"Uh... sorry, but no." Jake walked away uncomfortably and continued looking for Miley. After a few seconds of searching, he found her at her locker. "Miley, there you are!" He walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist.

Miley grabbed her math book, shut her locker, and turned to face Jake. "Hey, you ready for that Science test?"

Jake groaned. "I wish. I totally spaced last night while studying, and I didn't feel like ruining homeroom by studying. I'll just take the test and accept whichever grade I get."

"Oddly optimistic for you, Jake. Especially on a Tuesday with a minute till Science."

The two walked to Science, which was only about one hundred feet from where they'd been standing in the hallway. They got to their seats and sat down just as the bell rang.

Mrs. HutherWolde handed out the tests and Miley stared down at the sheet of paper in front of her. All of the questions looked confusing, even though she'd studied all night. Glancing over at Jake, she saw that he'd already gotten to the third question. Lucky bastard, she thought to herself.

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Miley and Jake split up after Science, leaving Miley a class with Lilly, and Jake a class with Oliver.

As Miley left the room, she ran into Austin almost immediately. Literally, she ran into him. They dropped their books and all.

"I am so sorry!" Austin said apologetically. "I should've been watching where I was going, that was really stupid of me." Without looking at Miley, he bent down to pick up his books.

"It's okay, I was in a hurry and didn't see you," Miley said. She went to help him pick up their books, and their hands touched briefly. They straightened up, and Miley noticed that he was blushing. "I'll see you later."

He nodded, obviously embarrassed, and walked away quickly.

Oh my gosh, he is so cute! Especially when he's embarrassed, Miley thought. I definitely have to tell Lilly about this.

She walked down the hall, determined to find Lilly as soon as possible. She turned a corner, and saw Lilly waiting by the bathrooms, their designated waiting spot.

"Miley, what took so long? You're normally here like... a minute before now," Lilly gushed out as soon as she saw her friend.

"No time to explain now, I'll tell you in English."

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Miley felt something tap her shoe as she was free writing. She purposely dropped her pencil on the ground so she'd have an excuse for bending down, and picked up her pencil along with the while piece of paper she found next to her foot. She unfolded it.

Miley-

We've been in English for ten minutes now. Spill

-Lilly

Miley started writing back a reply:

Lilly-

In the hallway I bumped into Austin. We both dropped our books, and our hands touched for like, a second, two seconds tops. He was really embarrassed, and it was just really cute.

-Miley

Miley-

But what about Jake?

-Lilly

Lilly-

You've already asked me that. Remember yesterday?

-Miley

Miley-

You never answered. So. What about Jake?

-Lilly

Lilly-

I don't know. I mean, last night, Jake broke a date with me, so he could go to a premiere with Hannah, and then this morning he shows up at my house with flowers. He can be such a jerk sometimes, but then the next second he can be really cute.

-Miley

Miley-

Well, lets see, what are all the negative things about Jake?

-Lilly

Lilly-

He's got a really big ego. He obviously can't be trusted. And that's all I can think of.

-Miley

Miley-

We have to stop this. We can continue our talk at lunch. We'll just have to make sure that Jake and Oliver don't try to sit with us.

-Lilly

Lilly-

I get the no Jake thing, but why not Oliver?

-Miley

Miley-

If Oliver sits with us, Jake will want to even more, and it'll just cause a big scene

-Lilly

Lilly-

Ok. No more notes

-Miley.

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The next three periods flew by. Miley had Math and Social Studies with Oliver, and in both classes he sat relatively close to her.

Then, in Computer Applications, Miley, Lilly, Oliver, and Jake all sat close to each other. Miley next to Jake, and then Oliver behind Miley, and Lilly behind Jake.

Miley liked Computer Applications. It was a really fun class for her, and it was easy. Seriously. All they do is teach you things about Microsoft Word, PowerPoints, and Microsoft Excel. They'd just started Microsoft Word yesterday, so today, they were working on their drawings.

"Now, this is just a practice, kids, remember that," their teacher, Mr. Hacklerton said.

"That's what, the fifth time he's said that today?" Lilly asked them. "We've only got 40 minutes in this class, and half the time, he's talking to us, and then he wonders why we never get anything done."

"Hey, speak for yourself," Miley said, just as she raised her hand to get Mr. Hacklerton's approval to print.

"Good Miley, really good. Go ahead and print it."

She went and got her snowman drawing, and stuck it in her folder when she came back.

"If it's just a practice," Oliver wondered out loud. "Why do we have to print it? Doesn't that kind of make it... not a practice?"

"I know what you mean," Jake piped up. "It seems more official, or something, when we have to print."

The bell rang, startling everyone. The students all saved their files, shut down the computers, and headed out the door.

Miley and Lilly stayed behind.

"So, can you tell me who you choose yet?" Lilly asked impatiently.

"No, Oliver and Jake are waiting outside, see?" Miley said, pointing towards the two boys through the window.

"Alright, let's go.


	6. Chapter 6

"So, spill. Who's it gonna be?" Lilly demanded Miley once they'd shooed Oliver and Jake away. They'd told them that they were discussing girl stuff, and that it wasn't very good for their health to listen.

"I don't know, Lilly. Austin is cute, and so is Jake. But Jake hurt me, and I don't want to have to deal with that."

Lilly sighed. "Well then date Austin."

"But what if he doesn't like me? Just because I like him, it doesn't mean he likes me."

"I'll find out for you. Just dump Jake."

But I don't want to dump Jake. I spent weeks fawning over him, and just when we start dating, he cheats on me. But... is that really a god enough reason to dump him? Miley paused for a moment, searching for a subject change. "Y'know, Lilly, Oliver likes you."

"Don't change the - wait, Oliver likes me? How do you know?"

"In Computer Applications he was making googly eyes at you."

"How do you know?" Lilly asked. "Oliver sits behind us."

"I saw when I was coming back from getting my grape drawing from the printer."

"Really? That is so awesome! I mean, I've liked him for a long time, it's about time he started liking me back" "Yeah, I can't wait for you two to start going out."

"Neither can I!" Lilly glanced over at the table Jake and Oliver were sitting at to see Oliver staring at her. Once he realized that she was looking back, he quickly wiped away the slight trail of drool that had formed, and went back to eating his lunch.

"Back to you and Jake," Lilly said, remembering the previous conversation. "I say you dump Jake. If you keep him around, he'll think he got away with cheating on you. And who knows, maybe next time he'll cheat on you with someone other than Hannah."

"You're right Lilly. I've gotta break things off with him. But... can't I wait a few more days?" Miley finished lamely.

"No, Miley. You have to do it today."

"Okay. I'll break up with him in Health"

Once the girls dumped their trays, they headed to their lockers to get their gym clothes. At her locker, Miley spotted Jake.

"Hey Miley," he said smiling. He grabbed his Spanish books, since he had Science next, and closed his locker door.

"Um, Jake, we need to talk... but we can't right now. Can we talk in Health?" Miley opened her locker and grabbed her gym bag. She shut the door as Jake nodded.

"Yeah, sure. What about?"

"Just... stuff."

"Alright," Jake said uncertainly. He kissed her on the cheek before heading off to Spanish, and leaving Miley slightly shocked in the hallway.

When Miley got back to the lunchroom for ten-minute read, she found that Lilly, Jake and Oliver had saved a spot for her.

The kids in Health, Gym, Spanish, and Speech and Drama had ten-minute read in the lunchroom, because it was cozier in there, and the lighting was better. After all, would you rather have to read using those annoying fluorescent lights, or natural lighting from the window?

She sat down in between Lilly and Jake, but found it very difficult to concentrate on the book she had chosen, because Jake wouldn't stop staring at her.

At the moment, she was reading R.L. Stine, a new favorite of hers. His books are simple, but most of them are really good, so it's okay.

Ten-minute read didn't seem to go by quick enough that day. Throughout the whole reading period, Miley could feel Jake's gaze burning into her, and she knew he was just itching to ask what they had to talk about. But she kept her nose in her book, and ignored him as well as she could.

When the bell finally rang, Miley shot out of her seat quickly, as to avoid Jake.

During gym, Lilly confronted Miley. "He was staring at you."

"I know, I could sense that he was."

"Miley, when you break up with him, you have to be mean about it. So that he feels your pain, and can feel at least a little bit of what you went through."

Miley stopped jump roping. "What? I have to be mean to him? Lilly, I can't be mean. It's just so… mean."

"That's the point, Miley! If you make him regret cheating on you, he'll never do it again. Do you want him to do this to other girls?" Lilly demanded.

"Well… no," Miley said, returning to her skipping. "I guess I'll have to be harsh about it."

"Right. Just… make sure that you tell him you know all about him cheating on you with Hannah."

"How am I gonna tell him that without him getting suspicious?"

"Well, he told Hannah about Miley, so tell him that Hannah called you and since then you've been friends."

"That's good Lilly. That's really good!"

"I know, I'm an evil genius," Lilly smiled, and got ready to do her push-ups.

Miley entered the Health room and immediately regretted that she was late. Every eye in the class was on her, including that of the Zombie Slayer.

"Thank you for finally joining us, Miss Stewart," Mr. Figg said. "And since we're choosing new seats today, you will choose yours last."

This statement fazed Miley in the least. It was alphabetical, and there was no one past 'Stewart' in the class.

Mr. Figg called people up to choose their seats, and Miley stood to the side to let them pass her.

Then, it was Miley's turn. She stepped forward, and saw two empty seats: One next to Jake, and one by Becca Weller.

_I might as well sit next to him_, Miley thought to herself. _After all, I do have to talk to him_.

As she sat next to him, he smiled. "Hey Miley. Can we have that talk now?"

"Um..." Miley looked to make sure that Mr. Figg wasn't back yet. He'd gone to the teachers lounge, mumbling something about donuts. "Okay. What I wanted to talk about was... we need to break up."

Jake was quiet for a moment. Then, he grinned. "You're kidding right? That was really good. But no, seriously. What did you need to talk about?"

"That is what I wanted to talk about. I can't be your girlfriend anymore. I'm sorry."

"Is this because of my fangirls? I can get them to stop hanging around me as much, really."

"No, that's not why, Jake."

"Then why do you want to break up with me?"

"Because... I know about you and Hannah."

"Who told you? How did you find out?!" Jake was outraged.

"Hannah told me, Jake. She told me that you also said that you weren't dating me, just so that you could get her to date you. That's really low Jake, even for you."

With that, Miley got to work on finishing her worksheet.

Miley made her way to Study hall, Jake in tow, considering that him, Lilly, and Oliver were in the same class as her. Lucky for Miley, they didn't all sit next to each other. Jake and Oliver were oddly all the way across the room from them, at the same table. Lilly and Miley sat at the same table too.

"Did you do it?" Lilly asked when Miley sat down.

"Yeah, I did it," Miley answered. "I just feel so... bad about it. Mean, even."

"No, you have no reason to feel bad, or mean. He had it coming to him."

"I know. Trust me, I do. But that can't change the way that I feel."


	7. Chapter 7

That morning when Miley woke up, she didn't find Jake waiting for her outside, with a bouquet of roses. Why would she? She had broken up with him yesterday, after all. You would break up with your boyfriend too, if he'd cheated on you with your alter ego. But Miley was sure Jake would find it in his heart to forgive her, eventually. After all, she was only protecting herself from getting hurt any further.

It was a beautiful day outside. As Miley looked out the window before she picked out her clothes, she saw the sun shining, heard the birds chirping, and couldn't wait to get outside. She decided that she'd take her MP3 player to listen to on the way to school.

Once she'd changed out of her pajamas and into a nice pair of jeans and a sweatshirt, she went downstairs for breakfast. She checked the clock and saw that it was only 7:39. Her dad and Jackson had left already, her dad to the studio, and Jackson to school. How Jackson could stand to get up so early every morning, Miley had no idea. She wasn't in a hurry to find out.

She inserted the ear pieces for her MP3 player into her ears, pressed down the button to turn it on, and started looking for her backpack. She never truly understood why it always took her five minutes to find her backpack. She always dropped it off in the same spot when she got home, but somewhere in between homework, dinner, and bed, it traveled to a different part of the house.

Miley thought back to yesterday, and tried to remember where she'd deposited the purple backpack, but it was no use. Her head was filled with thoughts of Jake. The roses he gave her yesterday morning. His smile. But worst of all, Jake's face when she broke up with him. She immediately started to feel guilty all over again. _Oh, why did I listen to Lilly? Couldn't I have stayed with him just a little longer?_ _No_, Miley corrected herself. _I couldn't have stayed with him. He might've cheated on me again_.

Miley went back to her search for her backpack, and found it sitting next to the piano. _Now why would I put it there?_ She wondered. It wasn't that much of a big deal, but it was an odd place for a backpack. She soon shrugged off the thought, and glancing at the clock which now read 7: 52, went outside, desperate to make it to school on time.

Along the way to school, Miley stopped and picked up a stray, aka, Lilly. They talked about boys, school, the beach, summer, and Oliver.

"So Lilly, are you gonna ask Oliver out?" Miley said out of curiosity.

"Why would I do that? I don't even know if he likes me." Lilly looked to the ground as she walked, a nervous habit from when she was younger.

"I do. He's totally head over heels for you, Lil. You've gotta ask him out!"

"What if he says no?"

"If he says no, we can kick his ass, okay?"

Lilly sighed in defeat, knowing that Miley wouldn't give in until she agreed. Miley's intentions were good, but couldn't she but out this once? "Okay, fine, I'll ask him out." _Only because you're making me,_ Lilly added in her head..

"He won't say no, Lilly, I can promise you that."

"But how do you _know_?"

"I've known him for a while, and I know how guys work. I've learned a lot from my brother.

They arrived at school about ten minutes later, and headed straight to homeroom. They'd decided to drop their books they needed off at homeroom and then go to their lockers, instead of the other way around. It seemed much easier to them.

As Miley walked to her locker, she saw a boy that she recognized right away standing next to it. And it wasn't a certain zombie-slaying boy that she knew, but none other than Austin Nickelson.

"Hey Austin, what's up?" she greeted.

"Nothing much. I just heard about the break up between you and Jake. He was a jerk to cheat on you like that," Austin sympathised.

"Thanks. I'm still sort of in shock about it, even though I'd known about his plan before it even happened."

"How did you know he was going to cheat on you with Hannah Montana?"

"Well, uh... Hannah and I are friends, so when Austin called her, she hung up and called me," Miley answered, obviously making it all up. But the strange thing is, Austin believed her!

"Oh, I see. I'll see you in homeroom, okay, Miley?" Austin took off then, not even waiting for Miley's reply. _Wow, that was odd. And oddly brave for him, as far as I've seen._

She quickly threw off the thought and put her books away. As she closed her locker and turned to go to Lilly's, she found herself face to face with yet another boy. Yes, this time, it _was_ Jake. "Hey, Jake."

"Hey," he said quietly, then, louder, he added. "Listen, I'm really sorry about cheating on you. I shouldn't have done it, and I wish I could turn back time so that I wouldn't, but I can't."

"Thanks," Miley said. "But even if you can't turn back time, you should have told me about it. Not waited for me to find out from the girl you cheated with."

As Miley said this, Jake got an odd look on his face, sort of like a 'I know something' look. But Miley couldn't be sure that was what the look mean.

"I know, I know." Jake paused, as if to build up the courage to speak again. "I was hoping we could still be friends. I know that might be kind of hard to do, but we can try, right?"

Miley nodded. "Of course. I'd love to be your friend."

"Great. I'll see you later then, okay?"

"Okay, bye." This time, Miley got to say bye before heading off to find Lilly.

She was about to turn the corner, when she heard to people who souded like Oliver and Lilly conversing.

"So, Oliver, can I talk to you about something serious?" the girl, Lilly, started.

"Well, sure, go for it Lil. I'm all ears." Oliver said. He sounded confused, probably because Lilly never talks about anything serious with him.

"Okay. I... I like you Oliver. And I was wondering if you'd... maybe want to go out with me sometime," Lilly stuttered.

"No," Oliver blurted right as Lilly finished speaking.

"Oh... okay then. I'll just... go crawl under a rock now."

With that, Lilly turned the corner and saw Miley leaning against the wall. She already had tears shooting down her face at rapid fire, and Miley could tell that there were silent sobs in her throat, just waiting to be released.

"You heard?" she said in a trembly voice.

"Yeah. Lilly, I'm so sorry, I really thought that he liked you."

"I should've have gotten my hopes up, just because you thought he liked me. I'm just a moron. An idiot. How could I have done something so stupid?"

"It's not your fault Lilly."

"Yes, it is. He probably hates me now, all because of one stupid little crush. Well he can forget that I ever liked him, and he can forget me, because I never want to speak to him again!"The rest of the week for the group of friends was very uneventful. It could be summarized in just a few short words.

Word number one: Boring. Ever since Miley'd broken up with Jake on Tuesday, who seemed to have a different girl hanging off his arm every few periods, and Lilly'd asked Oliver out on Wednesday, Oliver had been prone to hanging out with Jake, and Lilly to hanging out with Miley. Then, Austin would pop up randomly to talk to Miley, and just as soon as he'd appear, he'd be gone.

Word number two: Tense. It was tense in the sense that Miley and Jake would barely speak, even though they'd said that they could be friends again. They could barely find anything to talk to each other about, but they would try. Things were really bad with Lilly and Oliver. Lilly barely spoke when spoken to, and Oliver's Ollie Trollie just hadn't been the same. He'd try to act like nothing was wrong, but everyone knew that he was bugged. Amber and Ashley even noticed, which was something.

Actually, the quartet - or quintet, counting the odd apearances and disapearances of Austin, who suddenly had half his classes with Miley - had only said a maximum of 13 words to each other, until Friday came along.

"Alright kids, next week we are going to be working on expressions." Mrs. HutherWolde started. Most of the kids found it weird that their Science teacher was also their Math teacher, but hey, it was one less teacher for them to have to put up with, technically. "We will be showing examples given to you on a poster, including how to solve them, and the answer. The posters must be colorful. I'm not asking for any masterpieces, but it has to be neat, clean, and can't be hard to look at. I will pair you up and give you your example. Any questions?"

All the students stared back at Mrs. HutherWolde with a blank look on their faces, until Jake raised his hand. "When is this due?"

"It's due Monday, so you'll probably need all the time you can get, won't you?" Mrs. HutherWolde answered. Now, I'll pair you up."

As it turned out, hardly anyone liked their partners. Becca Weller and Jake were together, to Becca's joy and happiness, Ashley and Amber were together, to no one's surprise, and Austin was paired with Miley.

As Austin sat down next to Miley, he smiled and set down his binder. "Hey, Miley."

Miley smiled politely back at him. "Hey. Are you any good at expressions, because I am terrible at them."

"I did them last year, so I think we'll be okay."

_Oh my gosh, _Miley thought. _He's flirting with me! What do I do? Oh, flirt back, duh._

Miley gave a fake sigh of relief. "That's good to hear. But, since you're _so good_, if we get a bad grade, it'll be all your fault."

Austin laughed. "Alright, I guess I could take the blame for that."

Mrs. HutherWolde then gave them their piece of construction paper for the poster, and their example.

_16x + 7 32x - 7_

Miley nearly fainted at the sight of that problem. "How are we supposed to figure that out?!" she yelped.

"Well, it's easy. You have to make the -7 a positive right?" Austin said in an almost patronizing tone.

"Um... sure, why not?"

"Okay, and what number is on that side on the opposite part of the expression?" Austin had taken a piece of paper out of his binder and was writing down notes for what to write on the poster. Miley glanced at his paper, and read what he wrote:

_16x + 7 32x -7_ _+7 +7_ _16x + 14 32x_ _-16x -16x_ _14 16x_

Miley stared hard at the expression. "The 7?"

"Yeah. Since it's positive, and the 7 is negative, we would want to add 7 to both sides, to get rid of it on that side, so we'd be left with 32x."

"Okay, so it would be 16x + 14 32x?"

"Yeah, I think you're starting to get it."

"They're still stupid and need to go die on a branch."

"Whatever you say, Miley," Austin said, laughing, just as the bell rang.

"Oh, shoot, why don't we meet at my house after school to finish this?" Miley offered.

"That would be great, why don't you give me your address at lunch?"

"Okay, bye." The two hurried out of the classroom.

That day during lunch, Miley, Austin, Lilly, Oliver, and Jake all sat together. It was a quiet lunch, but it was better than nothing.

"So, Miley," Jake said, out of the blue once he'd dumped his tray. "What was your and Austin's example for math?

"Um... 16x + 7 32 -7," Miley answered after a moment of thought.

"Ooh, that sounds tough. Mine and Becca's was easy: 18x + 19 20x + 17."

"Wow, that is easy. X is 1, right?"

"Yeah," Jake said sounding impressed. "You're pretty good at math."

"Thanks, I just did this stuff last year."

Miley and Lilly then stood and dumped their trays, and headed to gym.

"Alright, what's 16 divided by 14?" Austin asked Miley, since she was holding the calculator. It was 4:37 and they were in Miley's living room, Austin still taking notes on what to write.

"1.1428571."

"Um... let's just use 1.14." Austin made more notes. "Well, I think we've got the notes on all we're gonna need to use."

"Great, I'll go get my markers and colored pencils."

As Miley left, Austin heard a racket coming from the kitchen and glanced up. A kid slightly older than him, with dirty blond hair almost as long as Oliver's, yet not as short as Jake's was inspecting the fridge. Austin figured the kid hadn't seen him yet, so he just sat and stared at his notes.

"Hey, who're you?" _Ah, so he has noticed me_.

"I'm Austin, Miley's partner for our math project."

"Why are you here?"

"We didn't finish our project in school, so we just came here together after school."

The kid gave him a once-over, and opened his mouth to say something else, just as Miley walked in.

"Jackson! Quit interrogating Austin!"

"Sorry Miles, but as your big brother, it's my duty to interrogate every boy who looks at you." _Big brother huh?_ Austin thought to himself.

Miley rolled her eyes. "I thought you'd stop doing that after you scared Oliver into actually wetting his pants."

"Nope, that just encouraged me more. Now I gotta go meet Coop at Rico's, see ya Miles." As Jackson walked by with an apple in his hand, he ruffled Miley's hair, causing her to smack the offending hand.

"Sorry about him, he thinks he has to protect me or something," Miley said turning to Austin with her markers and colored pencils.

"It's alright, I'm sure he's just looking out for you. So what do you want to use first?"

"I'll use the colored pencils, you can use the markers."

"Alright." Austin laid down his note sheet, allowing Miley to see what he'd written.

After about ten more minutes of work, they were done.

"This poster looks great," Miley said enthusiastically. "It's going to be the best in the class."

Austin turned to face her. "Of course it will. I mean, you worked on it, so of course it's going to be perfect."

Miley blushed. "Thanks, Austin. You're not too bad at... markering, either.""Okay, our equation was 16x + 7 : 32x -7," Miley started out. It was Monday during math class and every eye in the room was on her. She wasn't nervous though, of course. She's Hannah Montana people, get real. No, it was more like her partner who was nervous. Off to the right of her was Austin, who at the time was sweating like a pig. It was actually quite funny that someone as cute as him would be afriad to make a simple presentation in front of the class. Miley found it quite endearing.

"And since the seven on the right side of the equals sign is negative, we had to add seven to both sides, so that the equation would now be 16x + 14 : 32x," she continued. As she glanced at Austin, she saw that he'd calmed down a bit, and was hinting that he was ready to help present.

"And so we then subtracted 16x from 32x and got 14 : 16x. So we had to divide 16 by 14, and we got... 1.14. It actually went on longer than that, but we decided to shorten it up."

"Very good," Mrs. HutherWolde interrupted before anyone could applaud them. She discouraged applauding students, because some got more applause than others, and tended to hurt feelings. "You may sit down. Jake, Becca, your turn."

As Jake and Becca stood to go to the front of the room, Miley couldn't help but notice that Jake couldn't, or wouldn't keep his eyes off her.

"Jake and I got 18x + 19 : 20x + 17..." Becca droned on. For the next 3 minutes, Miley had to struggle to zone her out as she tried to ignore Jake's eyes which seemed to be burning a hole through her. Even when she wasn't facing Jake, she could feel his eyes on her. Just the feeling that she was being watched sent shivers racing up and down Miley's spine.

_What's up with this new creepy Jake, and where did the old one go? _Miley thought to herself.

As people hurried to get out of their classes as fast as they could once the bell rang, someone behind Miley felt the need to push her roughly. As she fell to the ground, her books feel a total of five feet in front of her.

As she scrambled to pick up the books and papers, she saw another pair of hands helping her gather her things. She didn't even have to look up to know whose hands they were.

"Why do I always end up falling around you?" As she finished her sentence, she'd finished picking up her things and looked into the eyes of the boy who'd helped her once again.

"I dunno," Austin replied, shrugging. "Maybe it's because you're starting to fall for me?"

Miley giggled at the ridiculous play on words. "Sure, Austin. In fact, I'm so head over heels for you, that I may just start staring and drooling uncontrollably."

"You'd better not," Austin said, suddenly serious.

"Oh? And why is that?"

"You might see me staring back," he said, his voice again in a joking tone.

Miley laughed again. "Well I'd better find Oliver. We have this thing where we always walk from Math to Social Studies together, and he'll be upset if I don't walk with him."

"Well I don't see him around. Maybe he ditched you. Mind if I walk you to class?"

"Don't you have a class to go to?"

"Just Science. It's right next to the Social Studies room."

Miley accepted the invitation and walked off with Austin. Little did she know that someone was watching them angrily.

_How could she do that? How can she just stand there and flirt with him so shamelessly? _the unknown person thought to his or herself. _If she's not careful, she'll have so much coming to her, she won't know how to handle it._

_I'll spread rumors about her. I'll get rid of all her friends. I'll make sure _everyone_ knows her secret. I really don't want to do this, but she leaves me no choice. If she doesn't stop with this flirting soon, I'll have to do it. And wouldn't that be such a shame?_

All through out Social Studies, Miley was daydreaming. Once their teacher, Mrs. Harrison, was done explaining what to do, she handed out worksheets and left the students to do their work. They were given some sort of fill in the blank packet, and were told to read in their books to find the words to put in it.

Miley, of course, didn't know that though, because of her daydreaming. Oliver'd poked her a few times to get her attention. It would work until Oliver was done demanding that she 'start on your worksheet, or you'll get in trouble!'. After that, she would be completely out of it, like no one had interrupted her.

Finally, Oliver had had enough of it. "Miley!" he whispered just loud enough for her and everyone around them to hear.

She finally jerked out of her Austin induced stupor and stared at Oliver angrily. "What?"

Oliver recoiled at her angry tone. "Uh... if you don't get started on your worksheet soon, you won't get it done before," just then the bell rang, cutting off Oliver in mid-sentence. "...class ends." he finished lamely.

Miley and Oliver hurried to gather their things, shutting their worksheets in their books, zipping their pencils and pens away inside their binders, and situating their things just right, so they wouldn't fall out of their arms.

The two hadn't even made it twenty feet out of the classroom before someone was calling after them.

"Hey, Miley, Oliver, hang on a second!"

Miley recognized that voice. It was a voice she really didn't want to hear right now. It was Jake's voice. Oliver however, seemed to have no problem with talking to Jake.

"Hey man, what's up?" He and Jake did the secret handshake they'd shown to Miley and Lilly.

"Not much. But um... could I talk to Miley for a second? You don't have to go away or anything, I just... I really need to say this."

Miley turned to face him. "What do you want, Jake?"

"Miley... I _am_ really sorry about what I did with Hannah. You know I still love you, right?" Jake made a wounded dog face at Miley, which under normal circumstances, she wouldn't have been able to resist. But these weren't normal circumstances, and she could resist.

"You know I still hate you, right Jake?" was her cold reply.

"Yes, and I am willing to accept that you hate me right now. Just as long as it doesn't last forever."

"Oh, trust me, it could," Oliver interrupted.

"It'll last as long as it needs to Jake," Miley said, coming back to the conversation.

"But... but I love you!" Jake practically shouted at her as she sped up her walking pace to get to Computer Applications, just before the bell rang.

"Whatever, Jake."

And before Jake could even think of a reply, Miley was gone.All throughout Computer Applications, a heavy silence had drifted over Miley, Oliver, and Jake. For minutes at a time, Miley was sure that Jake was staring at her. She could feel the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end, and she just knew that she was being stared at. But everytime she looked at him, he'd be staring hard straight ahead at his monitor. He was always concentrating very deeply on his work when she'd glance at him. So if Jake wasn't staring at her, who was?

Lilly was clueless. She kept trying to get a conversation going with them, but they'd only say a few words before tuning her out. She was confused, but didn't know what to do about it. Eventually, she did get something out of Miley.

_"Miley," Lilly whispered. "What's going on between you guys?"_

_Miley finished typing a line and looked at Lilly for a moment before whispering back. "Jake tried to apologize. But honestly, the more he bugs me about it, the more annoyed I get."_

_"He's really sorry though," Lilly said sympathetically. "Why can't you just be friends?"_

_"Because," Miley answered simply. "He broke my heart. Besides, you were the one who was all for me dumping him and making him feel guilty. Now that he's starting to feel bad about it, why do you want me to be his friend?"_

_"I just wanted him to get a taste of his own medicine. I think he's suffered enough, Miley."_

_"Maybe he has. But I'm not ready to make nice. Now can you please just drop it?"_

_"Yeah. Sorry."_

Oliver and Jake wouldn't give much more information. From them, she found out that it had happened right before Computer Applications. That was it.

_Why won't they tell me anything else? _Lilly wondered to herself as the bell rang. _Well... maybe that's all there is to the story. But Jake's gotta have a side to this. I can't just take Miley's word as the truth all the time._

Miley shot out of Computer Applications before anyone could say anything to her. She wasn't in the mood for Lilly's questioning, Oliver's sympathizing, or Jake's staring.

She really wanted to talk to Austin. As hard as it was for her to explain, she just felt more comfortable, secure even, around him. Maybe it was because he was always so happy. Or maybe it was because he always made Miley feel like she was the only one in the world when she was near him. Maybe she just felt safe around him because he was the opposite of Jake.

Jake was cute, and so was Austin, so of course, that's not a place where they differ. Jake was popular and obnoxious, whereas Austin was shy and practically fainted when in front of crowds. Austin was sweet and cared for others, while Jake was snotty and only cared about himself.

Miley was starting to forget why she ever liked Jake.

_Why would anyone like that annoying Zombie Slayer when Austin's around?_ Miley thought as she reached her locker after swerving through the crowds of people getting ready for lunch. Miley opened the lock and stuffed her binder in. Then, she shut the locker, turned around, and saw the person she wanted to see the most. Austin.

"Hey Austin, what's up?"

"Not much. I just... I was wondering if we could talk," he said nervously.

Miley glanced at the people around them. She spotted Jake heading their way, followed by Oliver. Lilly came around the corner and headed towards her locker, which she'd had moved next to Miley's so she wouldn't have to deal with Oliver. The trio stopped in their tracks when they saw Austin talking to Miley.

"Sure. What do you want to talk about?"

"Well... I uh, I really like you and... I was wondering if you'd want to go out with me sometime."

Miley's eyes widened. "Really? Yeah, that would be awesome!"

"Great! So I'll talk to you later, okay?" Austin said giddily.

"Alright, bye!"

Austin leaned forward and kissed Miley on the lips, right in front of everyone. "Bye."

He then walked off, leaving Miley in a daze. That is, until Jake angrily approached her, with an upset looking Oliver trailing behind him.

"What the hell was that?!" Jake demanded, pushing Miley against her locker.

"Ow!" Miley rubbed her bruised shoulder and looked at Jake fearingly. "What was that for?"

Jake stepped forward, closing the gap between him and Miley. "Why were you and Austin making out in the _middle of the hallway?_"

Miley shrugged. "He asked me out and I said yes."

"Why would you say yes?" Oliver piped up. "You don't really like him!"

"How do you know Oliver?" Miley fumed. "Besides, it's none of your business whether or not I go out with Austin. It's not either of your business. So just back off."

Miley turned to see Lilly at her locker a few lockers down and went to talk to her. Upon closer inspection, she saw that Lilly was crying. "Lilly, what's wrong?"

"It's Oliver. I... I've seen the way he's been looking at you. He's totally in love with you, Miley."

"No he's not! He's just worried about me, Lilly."

"No, he loves you. Which is more than he feels for me." Lilly glanced over at Oliver who was having a very heated discussion with Jake and sighed wistfully. "I never had a chance with him. He's too in love with you to even think about me."

"Lilly, I can promise you that Oliver doesn't love me, or like me. We're too good of friends to even think about anything like that."

"Well Oliver thinks about it. I can tell."

"Lilly..."

"No Miley, just drop it, okay. I'll stop crying soon. Let's just go to lunch, okay?"

They walked to lunch, Lilly sniffling the whole time. They got to their normal lunch table, only to see that Oliver and Jake were already there. The two searched the whole cafeteria for another table. They couldn't find one, so sat down, making sure to avoid Oliver and Jake as much as possible. They soon realized that wasn't possible. Especially Miley, who noticed that Oliver was, in fact, staring at her. She couldn't tell if it was in a loving way, or in a creepy 'I hate you' way. So she decided not to say anything.

After lunch, Jake was very mopey. Everywhere he went, he'd be walking around with his head down, and his eyes filling with tears. In Health, he barely looked at Miley. His eyes seemed permanently glued to the desktop. Miley saw a few tears run down the side of his face out of the corner of her eye, and she could've sworn that her heart broke all over again.

When the bell rang for the end of Health, Miley and Jake headed to Directed Studies, Jake a few paces ahead of her. Once in the classroom, they found out that there was a new seating arrangement. Oh joy.

Lilly and Oliver ended up at the same table, as did Miley and Jake.

They sat down, and Jake started to cry a bit more.

_Wow_, Miley thought. _Did me agreeing to go out with Austin hurt Jake that badly?_

Miley sighed. "Jake... are you gonna be okay?"

Jake looked up at Miley, his eyes looking as if they'd been drawn on with red eyeliner. "Why do you care?"

"As mad as I am at you, it hurts me to see you so sad. "

"I still don't see why you should care."

"Well... it just bothers me, okay? Look Jake, if I forgive you and we become friends again, will you stop moping around?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"Then I forgive you, Jake."


	8. Chapter 8

"Miley, you go girl!" A random girl shouted out as Miley and Lilly walked in the front doors of the school. Lilly shot Miley a 'what-did-you-do' look, and Miley shrugged.

A few moments later, they were approached more random praisers, but for the reason, they didn't know.

"Hey, I heard about you and Austin, way to go!"

"Hey Miley, wanna come over to my house tonight? We can have more fun than you and Austin!"

"What's going on?" Miley demanded of the next person who walked by them.

"You really don't know what they're talking about? Wow, do you have short term memory loss or something?"

"No! Just tell me what's going on!"

"Well, everyone knows about what you and Austin did."

"...what did Austin and I do?"

"Oh my god. You really forgot!"

"Just tell us what Miley did!" Lilly growled.

"She had sex with Austin. Duh!"

"WHAT?!"

"Do you need to talk to the counselor? I mean, if you forgot, she can talk to your parents and your doctor. You can work something out..."

"I did not have sex with Austin!" Miley said angrily.

"Well," the girl said, "have fun explaining that to everyone here."

_Okay, this is good. People actually believed me! Now, it's time for the second rumor. Oh, Miley, Miley, Miley... if only you'd listened to me. Then, we wouldn't have to do this..._

"Miley!" Jake yelled, running to meet the girl at her locker. "Tell me that scumbag didn't hurt you."

Miley stared at Jake, completely dumbfounded.

"What scumbag?" Lilly pondered aloud.

"Austin," Jake answered through clenched teeth.

"Why would Austin hurt Miley? He's like, totally in love with her."

"Don't say that, Lilly, he's not in love with me!" Miley finally understood what was going on. "You heard the rumor, didn't you Jake?"

"Which one?"

"Wait... there's more than one?"

"Well... uh," Jake looked extremely nervous. "Just tell me the one you're talking about."

"The one where we supposedly had sex," Miley crossed her arms over her chest. "That's the one, right?"

"I'd love to say that is the rumor I heard, but it's not."

"Then which one did you hear?" Miley asked, clearly confused.

_Oh crap. She doesn't know... I wouldn't want to tell her... she might get hurt_, Jake thought to himself. _She does have the right to know._ Jake hesitated a moment, but then answered. "I heard that Austin raped you."

"What?! He did not rape me! He is the most caring, sweet, considerate guy I've ever known! How could you even _think_ that he would hurt me like that?" Miley was fuming. She seemed out of breath, and unable to say another word without bursting into tears.

"Why does everyone think that Miley and Austin either had sex, or that Austin raped her? Who told you that?" Lilly demanded, allowing Miley to dry-sob on her shoulder.

"Oliver told me. He said he heard from Becca, who heard from Amber and Ashley, who heard from Josh, who heard from Johnny, who heard from..."

"Jake! Just shut up, okay? I'm getting to the bottom of this, and you're helping. Got it?"

"Yeah, I guess."

Miley turned back to her locker and took out her things. "Thanks you guys. I can't believe someone would hate me so much that they would actually say things like that about me!"

"It's no problem, Miley," Jake said. "But this person probably doesn't just hate you. They most likely hate Austin too. I mean, both of the rumors are about you _and_ him."

"Good point!" Lilly said. "But who do we know that hates Austin?"

_DING! DING! DING!_

"Let's go. We can figure this out later."

All throughout school, the group of friends, now including Oliver, tried to figure out who'd started the rumors. That was nearly impossible though. How were they supposed to figure out who'd done it? It's not like the person would just walk up and say 'It was me!', then go run off and hope they were to mad at them, whoever it was.

It was after school now, and the four were just as confused as before. They were arranged around the living room with lists of who it could possibly be. They'd read a name aloud, and if the others thought they were a possible suspect, they'd put a star by their name.

"Could it be Amber and Ashley?" Miley offered. "They've always hated me."

"Maybe. I mean, I can imagine them starting rumors about you, but why would they hate Austin? Last I knew, they were both crushing on him pretty hard," Oliver said thoughtfully.

"No, they hate him now. Yesterday during Science, he turned both of them down for dates. I'm sure they'd want to get even, and this was probably the easiest way for them to do it." Lilly sighed. "But I don't think it was them. I mean, not many people knew about you and Austin agreeing to go on a date in the first place."

"Right," Jake supplied. "So it would have had to have been someone who's locker is near ours, or someone who could've overheard us talking while they were walking by."

"So who all was there?" Miley wondered. She thought back to yesterday, but couldn't really remember anyone being around.

"Well, there's us and Austin of course. But do you think Becca heard? Her locker's not that far down from ours," Lilly said.

"Maybe..."

"What about Yolanda?" Jake asked.

"Who?"

"What?"

"Huh?"

"You know, Yolanda. She's a part of my 'fan club'. The red-head with glasses and freckles." Jake answered in a 'duh' tone.

"Okay, well why could it have been her?" Oliver asked.

"Her locker's like two down from mine. She easily could have been there the whole time without us noticing."

"I don't think it was her. I mean, why would any of your fanclub want to do anything to hurt Miley? They all know how close you two are."

"Maybe they wanted to hurt Miley _because_ I'm close to her."

"No, I'm telling you, it wasn't her!" Oliver shouted.

"How the hell do you know?" Jake demanded.

"Because, it was me!" Immediately after that outburst, Oliver's eyes went wide, and his hand flew to his mouth."Oliver, how could you?" Miley demanded. She was shaking with anger and your face was turning an intense shade of crimson.

"Well... I..." Oliver was shaking too, but out of fear, not anger. He'd never seen Miley that angry before, and it scared him. "I like you Miley. A lot. I know that may be hard fo you to except, but it's true."

"So you spread rumors about me being a slut out of what? Affection? Love? You know how shitty that is Oliver."

Oliver looked defeated. "Miley, it's not like that!"

"Then what is it like, Oliver?"

"It's... I was jealous of Austin, because of your date with him, and you're always talking to him in the halls. So, I thought that if you heard those rumors, you'd think he spread them to make himself seem cooler or something. I'm sorry."

"You said those things because you were jealous of Austin?" Jake asked incredulously. "That's pathetic, Oken."

"I know. And I've already said I was sorry. What else do I have to do?"

"Go die on a branch!" Lilly blurted out. After receiving odd looks from Miley, Oliver, and Jake, Lilly blushed slightly. "Heheh, sorry. I'm just feeling very vocal today."

"Why don't you go to school and convince everyone that me and Austin didn't have sex, and that Austin didn't rape me. Then, we can talk."

Oliver's face took on a much lighter, paler color. He gulped. "How am I gonna convince them that I was lying?"

"You figure it out. If you could figure out how to get them to believe you, you can figure out how to get them to think you're a lying bastard."

"Fine. Fine, I'll do it tomorrow." Oliver turned, and left.

"Jerk!" Jake yelled after him.

The next day all during school, people would walk by Miley and give her disbeleiving looks.

"You know, Oken was obviously lying. I mean, who'd want to have sex with that stupid hillbilly?" Ashley commented while walking by Miley's locker.

"Oh, I know," Amber added, doing her best to make sure that Miley could hear them perfectly. "I mean, she's just so... ew."

They then turned and act like they hadn't seen Miley all along.

"Oh, Miley... so we heard that you really _didn't_ have sex with Austin," Amber said.

"That would be the truth," Miley said, crossing her arms. "Just wondering... who told you?"

"Oken, duh," Ashley said, rolling her eyes.

"Okay, thanks." Miley walked away, heading to Directed Studies. On the way there, she rain into - you guessed it - Oliver.

"Listen Oliver," she said. "I just overheard Amber and Ashley talking. They said that they were convinced that you lied. How'd you get them to believe you a second time?"

Oliver just grinned. "That's for me to know, and you to wonder about."

"That's so not fair!"

"Okay, fine, I'll tell you. Just... not right now." Oliver gestured towards the looming doors of the Directed Studies room which was getting closer every second.

"Alright, alright. I'll wait."

Oliver grinned. "Good. Cause I'm not telling you until after school."

Study Hall seemed to take forever to get over with. Miley was a bit unsure about whether or not she should forgive Oliver. She had given him her word, but could she really trust him now after all of this?

In an attempt to make time go by quicker, Miley sat next to Jake basically the whole time and doodled with him. They'd decided to draw a monster together, and Miley started first. She drew a slightly round (it was more square) body with odd looking globs coming out of the sides. Jake had drawn the hands, Miley the feet, Jake the head, and Miley the hair. With their absolutely wonderful work, they figured that the monster would be seen in horror movies everywhere starting that spring.

They just needed to come up with what kind of a creature he was and his name.

Jake had suggested Bob from The Deep Depths of Under Your Bed. Miley was forced to hold back laughter, but shook her head no. She then suggested Ralph from Inside Your Tube Socks. They couldn't agree on what to name him, so they did Rock, Paper, Scissors to decide who would get to name him. Miley won, and he was therefor named Ralph from Inside Your Tube Socks.

The bell rang and they picked up their stuff, stacked their chairs since it was Friday, and went outside to wait for Oliver and Lilly. They didn't have a long time to wait though.

"Lilly!" Miley greeted. "You and Oliver have got to see Ralph."

The duo looked confused.

"Ralph?" Lilly asked.

"Who's Ralph?" Oliver countered.

"Ralph is the monster Miley and I drew," Jake said. "He's from Inside Your Tube Socks."

"Inside Your Tube Socks?" Oliver made a face. "That's the lamest name I've ever heard."

"I know! Jake agreed. "I wanted to name him Bob from The Deep Depths of Under Your Bed."

Oliver thought for a few seconds. "Yeah, Miley's is better."

They'd made it half way to their respective lockers before Miley remembered that Oliver had to tell her something.

"Hey, Oliver, tell me how you got the whole school to believe that Austin and I didn't have sex."

"Well, I just told Amber and Ashley that it was a lie. They were a bit skeptical at first, but then I reminded them of the rumor I started about you eating opossum, and they agreed with me, cause in their words 'Why would someone as hot as Austin want that hillbilly opossum eater?'. Then they started telling other people. So... sorry if some people start thinking you eat opossum again..."

"It's okay, Oliver. They stopped believing you after none of them saw me bring anything that looked like dead rodent to school for lunch."

"Yeah. I wasn't even a bit sure if you did or didn't eat opossum at first," Lilly said remembering that time in sixth grade.

"Wait a minute... Oliver told the whole school that you ate opossum?" Jake asked. "Why?"

"...I didn't know her then."

Jake rolled his eyes. "Whatever.""So... that movie was interesting," Miley said. She was at Austin's house for their date and had just gotten done watching Date Movie. For being talked about so much, the movie wasn't really all that great.

"Yeah. I think the best part was probably the part where Alyson Hannigan's character found out that Andy was a girl," Austin added.

"Mhm." Miley nodded. "The beginning was pretty funny too. With the whole 'Pimp My Ride' makeover, and the dating show."

"I didn't see that part. I guess I was too busy watching you..." Austin said smiling slightly.

Miley blushed and smiled. "Well did you enjoy watching me?"

"Very much. It was probably more entertaining than watching the movie."

There was a silence. Miley blushed even harder. Looking down at her feet, her cheeks seemed to go back to their normal color before she said anything. "You're so sweet, Austin." She looked back up at him. "Almost too sweet."

"Well, I try," he answered. And slowly, eyes closed, lips puckered, he leaned in to kiss Miley.

_He's gonna try to kiss me,_ Miley thought to herself. _Should I let him? No, I can't let him kiss me. I don't really like him. I... I still like Jake!_ And then it was the last second. The second where she had to choose. Kiss him, or don't. She turned her head to the side so his lips met her ear lobe.

"I'm sorry Austin," Miley stammered. "I can't kiss you. It's nothing personal, I just..."

"I know, I know," Austin cut her off. "You still like Jake. It's okay Miley. No hard feelings, I promise. But I don't think I'm the one you should be telling this to."

"Thanks for the date!" Miley hugged Austin before jumping up and gathering her things. With a wave, and her shoes in her hand, she ran out the door and the few blocks to the beach.

The feel of the cool sand between her toes was oddly relaxing. Miley slowed down to a walk. She looked out at the ocean for a moment to watch the moonlight reflect off the deep blue water. But she couldn't stop for long. It was getting late, and who knew how many weirdos were lurking on the beach at night?

Miley just kept walking and made it home in no time. She walked in the front door and up the stairs to her room, dropping her things by her door as she sat on her bed and got out her cell phone. She flipped it open and looked at the time. It said 8:14. Not too late. As she set her phone on her bed and got ready to lay back and think things through, the cell vibrated. Flipping it open for the second time in less than a minute she saw that it was Jake.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Hannah, it's Jake. I was invited to this party tonight and I was wondering if you'd like to come with me?"

_A party Hannah wasn't invited to? That's weird._ Miley thought.

"Well, where is it?"

"It's at this friend of mine, Evan Standerheim's house."

"I don't know Jake. I mean, I don't think I've ever heard of this guy. Besides, no one else is home, I wouldn't have a way to get there."

"I can pick you up, no problem. Can I actually see your house this time?"

"No Jake, sorry. But there is a beach close to my house. There's this little restaraunt there, Rico's. I'm sure you've been there a few times..."

"Yeah, I know where it is. So do I pick you up there?"

"Uh huh, that would be great."

"Alright, I'll be there in a half an hour."

"Awesome. Oh, and Hannah, Evan's not a bad guy. He's really great."

"Okay. Bye."

"Bye."

Miley hung up and ran into her Hannah closet. She had to get dressed fast.

She was dressed in a light blue long sleeve shirt with a matching blue and green flowered tanktop over it. She wore blue jeans with H's on the butt pockets and her black boots. Oh, and, of course, the Hannah wig.

She'd barely been at Rico's for five minutes when she saw a dark figure coming towards her from the shadows. Miley squinted, barely being able to make out who it was.

"Hannah! Is that you?" a voice called out. A very familiar voice... Jake's!

"Jake!" Miley waved and waited until he was closer. "How are you?"

"I'm great. Thank you so much for coming with me. Evan's great and all, but the party would be _nothing_ without a teen pop sensation."

"Aw, you're making me blush!"

"Should we get going then?"

Miley nodded and allowed herself to be led to Jake's limo with his arm around her shoulders.

When they got to Evan's house, Miley found that it was full of people. A lot of the people she had never seen before, but some, she had met.

A girl with long brown hair and a high nasally voice walked up to Hannah and greeted her. "Hannah! It's so good to see you! Ooh, Jake Ryan? Are you two dating?"

"Whoa, Traci, calm down. We're just friends!" Miley said nervously. "Well..." she shot a look at Jake who wasn't even paying attention. He was talking to a boy about his age who Miley assumed to be Evan. "we're just friends for now."

Traci squealed. "You two would be _great together_!"

"Yeah, I know."

Then, Traci spotted someone who was much more interesting than Hannah and left, waving. "Tootles!"

"Evan," Jake said, noticing that Traci was gone, "I'd like to introduce you to someone who is a very good friend of mine." He turned to Miley. "This is Hannah Montana. Hannah, meet Evan."

The two shook hands. "It's nice to meet you Hannah," Evan said. Miley couldn't help noticing how much he looked like Jake. They had the same bone structure, same eyes, and were even close to the same height. The only difference was that Evan had dark brown hair.

"You too. I love your house," Miley said.

"Thanks. Hey, I gotta go greet some more guests. I'll talk to you guys later, alright?"

"Okay, bye," Jake said. After evan left, Jake led Miley to a couch so they could sit.

"So, Miley, like the party so far?"

"Yeah, it's pretty cool."

"Well that's good."

"How did you meet Evan?"

"We were shooting a movie together. The director thought it was so weird that we looked alike, so he had us play the same person, but different personalities. Like, the character was crazy or something..."

And Jake went on and on. Miley found it extremely boring, so she just tuned him out, nodding and saying "Yeah" or "Okay" every once in a while. Jake didn't even seem to notice that Miley wasn't paying attention. _Does that boy ever get sick of talking about himself?_ Miley wondered.

After a few minutes, Miley was becoming bored. She looked around, but couldn't find anyone else she knew.

"Jake, I need to talk to you... somewhere else."

"Why, what's wrong?"

"We just need to talk."

Miley got up and dragged Jake across the living room. They went upstairs and Miley searched for an empty room. Finding one, she lead Jake in.

"Whoa, slow down babe," Jake said amused. "Let's get to know each other first."

Miley locked the door of the room and flipped the light on. She turned to Jake with a disgusted look on her face and she muttered 'pig' under her breath. She took a look around the room and saw that it had a bed against the far wall. The bed was covered in an odd purple, pink, and blue pazlie design. The walls of the room were all painted light purple. There was a shelf on one wall filled with stuffed animals. Another shelf on the opposite wall filled with glass figurines of ballerinas and snow globes. This was obviously a little girls' room.

She looked at Jake again. "Jake, why do you always have to talk about yourself?"

"You don't like it when I talk about myself? But everyone else does," Jake sat on the bed and looked at Miley with confused look plastered on his face.

"No! Do you just think about yourself all the time? Are you really that stuck up and I've just never noticed before?" Miley demanded.

"I only think about myself. I mean, come on, what else is there to think about?"

"Gee, I don't know, other people's feelings? School? Wars?"

"I didn't know those things were important to you," Jake said looking down at his feet.

"Well obviously you didn't! You don't listen to anyone but yourself! You're so stuck up, Jake! Can't you just grow up?" Miley glared at Jake. "And you know, if you'd paid a bit more attention to me, maybe you'd have realized that..."

Jake looked up, surprised that the string of insults had stopped flying. He saw that Miley's eyes were slowly filling with tears that almost fell over the brims until she reached up and wiped them away. "I would've realized what? Hannah, are you okay?"

Miley drew in a long shuddering breath and sighed. "You would have realized that... that I'm Miley." She reached up and tugged off the long blonde wig and her brown hair showed instead.

"It's about time, Miles," Jake said. He patted the space on the bed next to him. "Sit down, we need to talk."

Miley didn't move. "Excuse me?"

"I already knew you were Hannah. Now sit down, Miley."

She hesitated, then sat down next to him. "How did you know I was Hannah?" she asked quietly.

Jake put an arm around her and sighed. "It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that you, my dear, are the one and only, teen pop sensation, Hannah Montana. You've got the same gorgeous eyes, same voice, you're around the same height, you've got the same face shape..."

"Okay, okay, I get it. But why didn't you tell me you knew before? It would've saved me a bunch of heartache if you'd told me you'd known all along." Miley gasped suddenly. "That's why you called me Miley earlier isn't it?"

Jake nodded. "I didn't think you'd noticed because you didn't say anything. But, Miley, I just wanted to see if you'd tell me on your own. I wanted to see if you could trust me." He suddenly turned sad. "I guess you can't, though. I don't even know why I had bothered with you." Jake stood up to leave, but Miley pulled him back down.

"Jake, stop. I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner. I don't just tell everyone I'm Hannah. I had to make sure I could trust you, and if you hadn't 'cheated on me' with Hannah, I would have told you. I was actually planning on telling you the day you canceled our date."

"Really?"

"Yeah. But I should have told you sooner. I guess I wasn't a very good girlfriend..."

"No, I wasn't a very good boyfriend. I'm sorry."

"It's okay, Jake."

Someone rattled the door handle and there was a loud banging on the door. "Hey, you guys done there?!" they yelled.

"Get lost!" Jake yelled back. "If we were done we would've come out already!"

Jake looked at Miley. "I love you, Miley."

"I love you too, Jake. So can we get back together now?"

"Alright, as long as you promise me one thing." Jake smiled at Miley.

"What's that?"

"No secrets. From here on out, we have to be completely truthful with each other. Got it?"

Miley nodded. Leaning forward ever so slightly, she caught Jake's lips in a light, romantic kiss. She knew from that point on that everything was going to be okay.

**THE END**


End file.
